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Forums
Discussions Forums are a Web-based tool for promoting discussion between students, instructors and guest lecturers. The messages, in asynchronous time, are stored in threaded fashion by author, date and time. If you are a first-time online student, send a "test message" to make sure you have mastered this very important feature of online courses. The forums can be organized by subject and may be password protected, read-only or public forums, allowing anyone access. At Coastline, any student of a course generally has access, with the freedom to post a message to all or respond to a message already posted.
Chatrooms/Live Chat
Web-based Chatroom/Live Chat, a common feature of online teaching, is a useful way of communicating in real time with course participants. After accessing the Chatroom through the Live Chat icon, simply type in a message and push the submit/enter button, sending the message to all Live Chat participants. Average typing skills are sufficient.
The Live Chat screen shows the names (usually nick names) of those participating. The course instructor has designated Live Chat times and sometimes there are designated times for students only; students are also free to schedule times for online study groups, very popular in some courses. Depending on course material and design, Live Chat student participation may be required.
Chatrooms/Live Chat has certain accepted conversation standards (chatiquette) such as no profanity, racist remarks, etc. As in regular conversation, it is best to communicate in brief messages, recognize other participants, and avoid hogging the conversation. There are also useful, generally accepted abbreviations which can speed up the typing process and conversation. For more information on chatiquette, please access http://coverage.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Chat07.html
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